Digital telephone switches (DMSs, 1As, etc.) commonly experience software and hardware problems that occur intermittently. To solve these problems, it is often necessary for an engineer, with the aid of a computer, to dial into a central office and monitor log reports produced by the switch and respond with appropriate actions when a problem is identified. A log is a status/information report to notify the user of events, software or hardware failures, or limitations of the switch. If the problem occurs infrequently (every few days or weeks), it is expensive and boring for an engineer to watch log reports for the error to occur. One way to free up the engineer's time is to make use of the UNIX-based AWK programming language to scan the text streams being sent from the telephone switch and automatically respond with actions when a pre-defined search pattern is found.
AWK is a text processing language that is generally used to scan specific text, and perform some function when a text match is found. AWK can also be used to scan text streams coming from a modem port and react when a pre-defined pattern is matched with the text stream by sending data or commands through the modem to the telephone switch. Telephony engineers will often execute commands at the remote telephone switch or collect data in files when debugging a problem. AWK is a powerful text processing language in the UNIX system that complements the engineer's needs, but like all programming languages, it must be learned, and when a program is written, it must be debugged. Unfortunately, few telephony engineers are experts in the use of UNIX and even fewer know AWK; those that do must write and debug the program, a process taking up to several days for difficult search and action requirements.